With Colette Pichon-Battle and Jennifer Riley Collins

We simultaneously face two related existential crises — climate breakdown and radical threats to democracy worldwide. The climate emergency demands a fundamental restructuring of governance keyed to both biospheric realities and to addressing obscene inequality. Can democracy withstand climate chaos? Is a reformed and stronger democracy our best hope to make it through the long emergency ahead of us? What’s needed?

This is an excerpt from an insightful Bioneers 2024 panel discussion featuring Chief Oren Lyons, legendary Indigenous Rights and climate leader, Faithkeeper, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee; Jennifer Riley Collins, Southeast Regional Administrator for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Colette Pichon Battle, co-founder of the climate justice organization Taproot Earth. The panel was hosted by Ben Davis, of Wend Collective and Civic (Re)solve.